NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — ^HOLMBERG 



17 



exactly the same way as chonta-headed arrows 

 except that the bamboo head is lashed onto a 

 chonta shank that is flattened on the distal end. 

 Nowadays, bamboo arrowheads are cut out with 

 bush knives, but formerly they were shaped with 

 mollusk shells. They are glued to the flattened 

 chonta' shank with beeswax and lashed tightly to 

 it with cotton string covered with uruku paint. 



After an arrow has been finished it should have 

 a certain twang when set in vibration. This is 

 tested as follows. The maker grasps the arrow 

 in about the middle of the shaft with his left hand 

 and lifts it up to the height of his eye. While 

 sighting along the shaft he grasps the nock end of 

 the arrow between the thumb and first finger of 

 his right hand and bends the shaft slightly toward 

 his face. He then releases his fingers with a snap 

 and the arrow, if a good one, vibrates with a 

 twangy sound. An arrow which does not produce 

 this sound when set in vibration is thought to be 

 a poor one. 



Arrows are always retrieved and are frequently 

 damaged on the hunt. If the shaft of an arrow 

 is broken, a cross section is cut off evenly on both 

 sides of the break, and a pencillike rod of chonta 

 palm wood, about 6 inches long and covered with 

 beeswax, is inserted about 3 inches up the hollow 

 shaft of one part of the broken reed. The pro- 

 truding piece of the chonta rod is then inserted 

 into the hollow shaft of the other part of the broken 

 reed until both parts of the reed meet. To com- 

 plete the job of mending, cotton string is wound 

 around the shaft for about 3 inches over the break. 



Some mention should also be made of the use of 

 pieces of wood as weapons. Clubs are never 

 manufactured but chunks of wood cut or picked 

 up at random sometimes serve as clubs to kill 

 wounded animals and to pound with. 



HOUSING 



To judge from the type of house constructed, 

 the problem of shelter among the Siriono is not a 

 serious one. Little time is spent in making a 

 dwelling, nor when built does it comfortably pro- 

 tect them either from the inclemencies of the 

 weather or from the ubiquitous insect pests that 

 continually harass them. The house, whether 

 shared by the entire band or hastily erected by a 

 single family or hunting party on the march, is 

 always the same general type, although varying 



in size and degree of completeness. It consists of 

 a roughly rectangular frame of poles against 

 which are set, at an angle but not bound together, 

 the long leaves of the motacu palm. The house is 

 thus but an elaboration of the most simple type 

 of lean-to or wind screen. 



No one person supervises the construction of a 

 house. Before building one, a site is selected by 

 general agreement. It must be near water and 

 relatively free of underbrush but at the same time 

 should contain a few sturdy trees to serve as up- 

 right supports or columns upon which to lash the 

 frame. Care is taken to select a spot which con- 

 tains no dead or rotten trees that may fall over 

 during occupancy. However, trees are never 

 cut down to clear a house site; rather, the house 

 is built around them. 



After a site has been selected, the men go in 

 quest of poles for the frame. Nowadays these 

 are cut from nearby trees with machetes, but 

 formerly they were doubtless hacked off with the 

 digging stick. No particular type of wood is 

 specified for the construction of the frame, al- 

 though frequent use is made of soft chonta palm 

 trunk and of heavy bamboo, which is abundant 

 in certain parts of the area. The sturdiuess and 

 size of the poles for the frame depend upon the 

 number of people who will occupy the house. 

 They must be of sufficient strength to withstand 

 the weight of all the people in the house, since 

 their hammocks and gear are tied to the poles of 

 the frame as well as to the trees onto which they 

 are lashed. If the distance between the trees to 

 be used seems too great to bear the weight that 

 the poles will have to support when they are 

 lashed between them, additional forked trunks 

 are sunk upright in the ground by digging them 

 in with the digging stick to add further support 

 to the frame. 



The poles, when cut, are lashed to the outer side 

 of the trees and in the forks of the upright columns 

 with lianas, which are wound several times around 

 the poles and the supports until they are secure. 

 This liana lashing is fastened with half hitches. 

 The entire frame is bound to the trees and to 

 the upright supports at a height of about 5 feet 

 above the ground. 



The next and final operation in house building 

 consists merely in setting against the frame, at 

 an angle of about 60° from the ground, several 

 layers of the green leaves of the motacii palm. 



